Netanyahu says intense phase of Gaza war to end soon | CNN (2024)

Israeli Defense MinisterYoavGallantspeaks during a joint press conference at Israel's Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, Israel, on December 18.

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Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant discussed a transition into a new phase of the war in Gaza with US envoy and senior advisor to US President Joe Biden Amos Hochstein as the pair met in Washington.

Israeli officials have yet to clarify what Gallant means by “Phase C,” but on October 20, shortly after the terror attack that prompted Israel’s massive military response in Gaza, the Gallant and the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said that the war against Hamas would have three main phases: Phase One would entail a military campaign involving air and ground assets, while Phase Two would involve fighting but with “lower intensity” and to “eliminate pockets of resistance.”

Gallant said the third step “will be the creation of a new security regime in the Gaza Strip, the removal of Israel’s responsibility for day-to-day life in the Gaza Strip, and the creation of a new security reality for the citizens of Israel.”

It’s unclear if Phase C is intended as the third phase of the plan previously outlined by Gallant. CNN has reached out to the Israeli Ministry of Defense for clarification but has yet to hear back.

Gallant said on X after the meeting that he emphasized to Hochstein that “the transition to Phase III of the fighting in Gaza will affect all sectors of the fighting.

“We are preparing for every possibility, military and political,” Gallant said.

The statement added that Gallant and Hochstein discussed the escalating conflict on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Knesset Member and former military chiefGadiEisenkotattends a demonstration in Shoresh near Jerusalem in February 2023.

Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks about a potential “partial deal” to secure the release of some hostages would go against an earlier decision made by the country’s war cabinet.

Eisenkot’s comments come after Netanyahu said he was ready to make “a partial deal” with Hamas to return some hostages in an interview with Israeli media on Sunday. Netanyahu also reiterated his position that the war will still continue after a ceasefire “to achieve the goal of eliminating” Hamas.

Eisenkot responded by saying Netanyahu’s remarks damaged Israel’s objectives.

“There are soldiers who are fighting now because they have war goals to return the hostages and therefore I think that an immediate clarification by the prime minister is required as to what he meant,” he said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned Monday that a “further escalation” of Israel’s conflict with Lebanon would cause “catastrophe” for the entire Middle East.

Heading into a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Baerbock called the situation along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon “more than worrying.”

“A further escalation would be a catastrophe for everyone in the region which is why it’s so important that we finally get a ceasefire in Gaza,” Baerbock told reporters.

There has been a sharp uptick in cross-border salvos by Israeli forces and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. Evacuations have taken place in several northern Israeli settlements and Lebanese villages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview Sunday that the “intense phase of thewar with Hamas(in Gaza) is about to end,” which spurred concern that the Israeli military could turn its focus northward.

Baerbock said she will travel to Israel and Lebanon this week. She isdue to deliver a keynote speech at the Herzliya Security Conference in Israel, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said on Friday. She will then meet with her Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz in Jerusalem and the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Mustafa, in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

Baerbock will then travel to Lebanon to meet with the Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the families of the deceased hostages whose bodies are still being held in Gaza on Sunday, hours before telling Israeli media that the “intense phase” of the war is coming to an end, according to an Israeli official and one of the family members present at that meeting.

Ruby Chen, Hamas hostage family member, attends a press conference with the families of hostages held by Hamas at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., on January 17.

Ruby Chen, whose son Itay’s body is still being held by Hamas after his killing on October 7, told CNN that Netanyahu “did not give any indication” that there would be a shift in focus for the Israeli military, nor that he would be giving an interview later on Sunday.Chen also said he failed to understand the government’s logic.

Chen explained this was the first time the prime minister met just with families of the deceased hostages.

Chen added that gathering at the Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem lasted for more than two hours, running longer than expected. An Israeli official confirmed to CNN the meeting took place on Sunday.

Chen said that family members had an opportunity to express their feelings during the meeting and speak “heart to heart” with Netanyahu.

A Palestinian girl carries a child through the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Gaza on March 3.

As many as 21,000 children have gone missing in Gaza since the war began, according to Save the Children.

The nongovernmental organization said in a statement on Monday that at least 4,000 children have likely been buried under the rubble of buildings destroyed during the fighting. At least 17,000 are believed to be have been separated from their families and unaccompanied.

“Others have been forcibly ‘disappeared,’ including an unknown numberdetained and transferredout of Gaza, their whereabouts unknown to their families amidstreports of ill-treatment and torture,” the statement read.

CNN could not independently verify Save the Children’s estimates.

The organization added that Israel’s current offensive in Rafah had forcibly “separated morechildrenand further increased the strain on families and communities caring for them.”

“Every day we find more unaccompanied children and every day it is harder to support them,” a Save the Children child protection specialist in Gaza said.

“There is no safe place in Gaza,” the specialist, who was not named for security reasons, added.

What Israel said:The Israeli military says the Save the Children report is based on numbers provided by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.

The European Union’s top diplomat warned Monday that the chances of the war in Gazaigniting a wider conflict between Israel and Lebanon are growingdaily.

Borrell’s comments come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14 on Sunday that the“intense phase of the war with Hamas is about to end,”which would allow Israeli forces to shift their focus to the northern border with Lebanon.

Borrell said he was“much more worried”about conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia, than before, as there have been“more bombings on both sides of the border with Lebanon.”

Smoke billows following an Israeli air strike that targeted a house in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam near the Lebanese-Israeli border on June 21.

Tensions betweenIsraeland Lebanon have risen sharply since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing military campaign by Israel in Gaza. The Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has been firing missiles, mortars and drones into Israel, and Israel has returned that fire.

Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the mountainous border have fled as concerns intensify about the possible outbreak of another full-fledged war.

On the Lebanese side, residents of Shia-majority towns like Kafr Kila, Adaisa, AitaAl-Shaab and Aitaroun have almost all left. Frequent Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages have reduced many of these communities to rubble.

Marjayoun, in comparison, has been mostly spared. The town was the headquarters of the Israeli-armed and funded South Lebanese Army (SLA), a Christian-led proxy militia, during Israel’s decades-long occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended 24 years ago after a protracted guerilla war with Hezbollah.

When Israel pulled out in 2000,many of Marjayoun’s inhabitants fled south across the border to Israel, fearful of being accused by fellow Lebanese citizens of being collaborators with Israel.

Their departure, along with Lebanon’s collapsed economy, fear of yet another prolonged conflict, the absence of a functioning state and emigration have sapped Marjayoun of people and prosperity. Yet, more than two decades later, some residents still cling to their ancient town and vow not to leave.

Read more about the situation on the border here:

Two Jordanian army officers were killedafter three military trucks, part of a relief and humanitarian aid convoy heading to the Gaza Strip, crashed off the Dead Sea Highway in southwest Amman on Sunday,accordingto the Jordanian state news channel Al-Mamlaka.

Another two army officerswere injured. Both are in moderate condition, Al Mamlaka reported.

A military source in the General Command of the Jordanian Armed Forces said the country “will continue to send humanitarian relief aid to help the people in the Gaza Strip,” Al Mamlaka added.

In response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments saying the intense portion of the war in Gaza is about to end, Hamas said the Israeli leader is only looking for a partial agreement and not an end to the war in Gaza.

Netanyahu’s positions are “a clear confirmation of his rejection of the recent Security Council resolution, and the proposals of US President Joe Biden,” Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas continues to insist that any agreement include, “a clear affirmation of a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”

Hostage families sound off: In Israel, the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters condemned any suggestion of a withdrawal without securing the return of all hostages. “The end of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, without the release of the hostages, is an unprecedented national failure and a failure to meet the goals of the war,” the Forum said in a statement on Monday.

Read more about what Netanyahu said here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Centre on June 8, in Ramat Gan, Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the “intense phase of thewar with Hamas(in Gaza) is about to end,” and that the military’s focus could then shift to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where fighting with the Iran-backed groupHezbollah has intensifiedin recent weeks.

Netanyahu, however, vowed that Israel would continue operating in Gaza until the militant group Hamas was eliminated.

In his interview, Netanyahu said that he is ready to make “a partial deal” with Hamas to return some hostages still being held captive in Gaza, but he reiterated his position that the war will still continue after a ceasefire “to achieve the goal of eliminating” Hamas.